Court discharges man of charge of raping widow

New Delhi: A Delhi court has discharged a 28-year-old man from the charges of allegedly raping a 35- year-old widow on the pretext of marriage, noting that their relationship was consensual and she was a mature woman who knew its implications.

Additional Sessions Judge Praveen Kumar passed the order after observing that “there was no compulsion for the woman to establish physical relations without ensuring that the accused was willing to marry her.”

“The prosecutrix (woman) is a mature lady and, as such, it cannot be said that she was incapable of understanding the nature and implications of the acts which she consented to.

Her consent to physical relations, if any, was an act of conscious reason.

“There was no compulsion for her to establish physical relations first without ensuring that the accused was willing to perform marriage with her. She was mature enough to fully understand as to what was happening between the two,” the court said, adding that “it was an act of promiscuity on the part of prosecutrix and not an act induced by misconception of fact”.

According to police, the woman had lodged a complaint with the police in May this year alleging that she was acquainted with the accused for one and a half years.

She had alleged that the accused, who had promised to get her a job, repeatedly raped on the pretext of marriage. It further said that the accused then started threatening her with dire consequences after which she filed the complaint.